'Cat Island': Population 22 (Plus More Than 120 Felines)

U.S. Ambassador Pays Tribute to Boris Nemtsov

Thousands Tie The Knot at Unification Church Ceremony

Susan Rice: A Bad Deal With Iran is Worse Than No Deal

NBC News
March 02, 2015

Obama: Iran Must Agree to Freezing Nuclear Program for Ten Years

NBC News
March 02, 2015

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>u.s. has a lot riding on a democratic
egypt
, which it has long seen as a linchpin to its strategy for a secure and stable
middle east
. so what can the u.s. do to put pressure on the
egyptian government
to end the violence? a lot, actually, so why won't it? nbc's
david gregory
tonight on the obama administration caught
between a rock and a hard place
.

>> reporter: egypt
's bloody crackdown has critics asking whether american taxpayers are footing the bill for all the violen violence. why the blame? follow the money. the amount of
u.s. aid
to
egypt
is an estimated $1.5 billion each year, including aircraft and tanks and
military training
for officers. only four other countries, including israel and iraq, get more. the president may condemn the violence --

>>we deplore violence against civilians.

>> reporter: -- but won't call for an end to the aid. one adviser called that a, quote, knee-jerk move at this point. critics argue the time is now.
america
's only leverage to pull
egypt
back from the brink is the money.

>>at the
end of the day
, i don't want
american dollars
to be used by this
interim government
to basically kill their way into power.

>> reporter: u.s. aid
to
egypt
dates back to the
camp david accords
of
1979
. it buys the
u.s. military
's access to the
suez canal
which connects the mediterranean to the
red sea
, ensures peace with israel and the
sinai desert
and is supposed to provide support for democracy in
egypt
. what democracy, you might ask, as the military has jailed democratically elected leaders and crushes protests in the street.

>>anybody in
egypt
looking at the
united states
would see that we really don't have a game plan. we don't have a strategy. we have not articulated how we want to see this end.

>> reporter: u.s. officials are hopeful
egypt
will pull back, noting the deep and historic ties between the u.s. and egyptian militaries. what's more, if
america
cuts off aid now, other countries have promised to fill the void.

>>if we were to cut off aid, we would have no leverage with anybody in
egypt
, which is really the strategic nerve center of the
arab world
.

>>that is why the stakes are so high here. but the real question is whether
america
lacks the influence it once had in the region. with centuries of religious and sectarian scores to settle. lester?